Tuesday, June 7, 2011

As you know, we failed in our attempt last year to criss-cross America and chronicle Homelessness and Poverty in a personal way. Carly fell in love with a newborn baby and never made it past Tacoma, Miki got septicemia in California, spent eight days in the hospital and struggled weakly through the rest of the summer, and the e-publisher who had promised us page space cut us off without any word or explanation.

We have not given up on what we think is an important story to tell. And, our vision has grown. We not only want to put a compassionate face on the poverty issue in America, we want to do "An American Family" scrapbook, dedicated to telling the story of one homeless person in every town and city we get to, and making them as well-known to you, and as well-loved, as any other relative you already know.

We've hit a brick wall. Many people have promised financial support to help make our vision a reality. None has actually followed through. For some it has been a matter of personal necessity, for others we aren't certain.

Miki was supposed to leave on this newly planned trip June 1st. She's still here at home working in the garden, working at a friend's farm, and praying desperately for an angel to help her.

We located a small camper for her to drive across America. We have the camper (if we can pay for it), and all of the materials she needs to do the photo-journalism part of things. We have a programmer to build us a new website, and a tentative offer to submit our articles to America Magazine for publication. At some point, we'd like to make this project into a documentary, and we have a couple of filmmakers who have expressed interest in helping us with this.

We need ten thousand dollars, last week.

It sounds like alot until you remember that everywhere Miki goes, she will be working voluntarily in shelters and soup kitchens across America, whilst chronicling the experience.

We also plan on using this trip as a way of getting a final commitment from other Catholic Workers to come and build a sister house to Gilbert House in Menomonie, Wisconsin as soon as possible. We have a friend of our house who has prayerfully put up the necessary seed money to fund that house's start up costs, all we need are the bodies to get it running.

Christianity Untried

Chesterton says:"The Christian idealhas not been triedand found wanting.It has been found difficultand left untried."Christianity has not been triedbecause people thoughtit was impractical.And men have tried everythingexcept Christianity.And everythingthat men have triedhas failed. ~Peter Maurin

Gilbert House

in Glenwood City, Wisconsin

Thank You For Being Generous!

About Gilbert House

We are an intentional Distributist community in west-central Wisconsin striving together to live the ideals of the the Bible and the Catholic Worker Movement since 2004. We are actively engaged in sustainable gardening, corporal and spiritual Works of Mercy and living the most authentic Catholic Christianity possible with an eye towards the social teachings of the Church and the betterment of our youth and families. The lives and writings of Peter Maurin, Dorothy Day, G.K. Chesterton, Hillaire Belloc, Eric Gill and many others, for better or worse, inform our ideals and ambitions....

Contact us:

433 East Oak StreetGlenwood City, WI 54013715-265-4070

gkc.catholicworker{at}gmail.com

Why Gilbert House is not tax deductible:

In the tradition of our founders, Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day, the Gilbert House Catholic Worker is not an incorporated agency or organization and donations made to us are not, therefore, tax deductible. We are also firmly opposed to possessing tax deductible status, even if this means that people will not help our cause. This is because as Catholic Workers, the means with which we achieve our ends come at a personal sacrifice, and the means are just as important as the ends themselves. If people, churches or organizations want to donate to the ongoing apostolate of any Catholic Worker House, they should do so because it is the right thing to do, not because the government gives them a tax write off. Our advice is simple: do what you can, with what you have, where you are. That is what we are trying to do, and we invite you to help. Omnia ad majorem Dei gloriam!

Current House Needs

Travel/pocket Bibles & journals/pens

travel toiletries and bath bags

grocery store gift cards

camp tarps and sleeping bag liners

gas cards

telephone cards

bicycles

*good* Christian novels books for guests

embroidery supplies and fabric

a roofer

sheet rock

greenhouse materials

vegetable and flower seeds

gardening supplies

copies of the Catechism

books

land for food raising

cash donations

"The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them up." ~Dorothy Day

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"Where are the heroes and the saints, who keep a clear vision of man's greatest gift, his freedom, to oppose not only the dictatorship of the proletariat, but also the dictatorship of the benevolent state, which takes possession of the family, and of the indigent, and claims our young for war?" ~Dorothy Day.